SEONYU LEE

My work is dedicated to illuminating the overlooked and conveying meaningful messages to the world. This final collection in particular represents a deeply personal narrative, one of breaking free from the burdens of societal sacrifice and reclaiming personal freedom. The central figure in this story is my father. The collection is centered around seven key themes: sacrifice, father, embrace, tie, cigarette, suit, and briefcase, each symbolizing different aspects of his struggles and experiences.

For over three decades, my father sacrificed everything for me, enduring relentless hardship to the point of shedding tears of blood. When I once asked him what gift he would like, his response was simple: "Your hug is enough to make me happy." This moment profoundly moved me and inspired the foundation of my collection, silhouettes that embody the act of embracing, symbolizing both comfort and liberation.

He also once told me, "I worked myself to death for you, with a tie strangling my neck every day." This statement shaped one of the collection’s key concepts, the act of untying the tie as a metaphor for liberation, releasing him from the suffocating constraints of societal expectations.

These ideas translate into my designs through a series of symbolic elements. The tie, representing the suffocating pressures of work and societal expectations, is deconstructed into silhouettes that unravel, untie, and loosen, an expression of breaking free. My father smokes at least a pack of cigarettes a day, which I once resented, but later came to understand as his only brief escape from the weight of responsibility. I reinterpret cigarette smoke not as something destructive, but as a fleeting, delicate form of liberation, capturing its ephemeral beauty through intricate beading techniques.

My father often gazes at the sky while smoking, saying, "I want to fly freely." Inspired by this, I developed textiles that depict an aerial view of the earth, imagining the world from his perspective, how he would see it if he were finally free. The suit he wore every day was like a suffocating armor, a uniform that bound him to a life of sacrifice. I reinterpret this rigidity by creating garments that transform, soften, and shift, representing his journey toward liberation. The briefcase he carried every day was a constant, heavy burden, both physically and metaphorically. I incorporate this element into my designs by reimagining its structure into wearable forms that visually express the weight he carried and the process of letting go.

This project is deeply personal. Every silhouette, textile, and embellishment is dedicated entirely to my father. Through the themes of sacrifice and liberation, I aim to create not just garments, but a heartfelt message, a gift of freedom for the man who gave up his own.